Draft appliance.



J. H. SMITH. DRAFT APPLIANGE.

APPLIUATION FILED JUNE 1, 1912.

1,087,842. Patented Feb. 17, 1914.

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JOHN HOVAR-) SMITH, OF BENTON, NEBRASKA.

DRAFT APPLIANCE.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that l, .loi-IN HOWARD Stirn-I, acitizen of the United States, residing at Denton, in the county ofLancaster and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Draft Appliances, of which the following` is aspecification.

My invention relates to draft appliances to be used on gang plows andthe likeI and has for its object the provision of an appliance whichwill evenly distribute the draft to each animal and in my constructionenables the use of four anim als hitched abreast, so that one animal maywalk in the furrow previously plowed and the other three animals walk enthe unplowed Lground adjacent to the furrow.

Heretofore, in an ordinary four -liorse hitch appliance, it has beennecessary to secure the appliance to one corner ef the plow in order tothrow it to one side far enough to provide for one of the animalsfollowing` the furrow, while the other animals walk on the land that hasbeen unplowed, but the great objection to this construction of evener,has been that the draft has increased on certain animals.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a controller bar bywhich the draft is placed upon the animal or animals that happen to pullahead of the rest and will allow for the remaining animals to catch up.

My invention will be described in detail hereinafter and illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure l is a bottom plan view of my improved draft equalizer; Fig. 2,a. front end view; Fig. 3, a side view; and Fig. el, a top plan viewwith the cover plate for the equalizinn' levers removed.

ln the drawings similar reference characters will be used to designatecorresponding parts throughout the several views.

lvfy improved draft appliance consists of a draft member l adapted to behitched to the front end of a plow or other machinery te be drawn, andhaving' secured thereto a plate 2 spaced apart from the draft member lto receive the bell-crank levers 3 and 4 respectively. rllhe bell-cranklevers 3 and t are pivotally mounted on the draft member l and to theplate 2 by means of bolts 5 and 6 respectively, and are connected bymeans of a link 7.

3 indicates the draft bar having its two Specification of LettersPatent.

Application filed .lune 1, 1912.

latented heb. lf?, il@ ll/lt.

serial no. 700,940.

ends provided with openings i) and l() to receive the liitchinn' membersfor doubletrees (not shown), said doubletrees beingof the ordinary typ yand adapted to have whiilletrees, also (not shown), secured thereto. ltis considered unnecessary to illustrate the deuliiletrccs andswingletrees as these devices are to be of ordinary construction and arewell known to persons familiar with the art. The bell-crank lever 3 isconnected with the draft bar 3 between the terminal in which is theopening` 9 and its middle portion by means of a rodll pivotally securedas shown at l2, to said bell-crank lever and to the draft bar 3 at 13.rlhe bell-crank lever 4r has a relatively longer end la than thebellcrank lever 3 and is provided with a series of openings l5 thereinin one of which is pivetally mounted a bar 1G that is piifotally securedas shown at 1'?, to the draft bar 8, intermediate of the terminal inwhich. is the opening l0, and the middle of said bar.

Secured to the rear margin of the draft barS and slightly nearer the endin which is the opening' 9 than the other, is a bracket 18. Said bracketis secured to the draft bar 8 by means of bolts 19 or other suitablefastening's secured to said draft bar, and pivotally secured tosaidbracket 1S is a link 2O havingl its end farthest removed from saidbracketlS curved rearwardly as shown at 21 its terminal secured to thelever l intermediate of the outer terminal of said lever and the pivot6, as shown at Q2.

indicates a. supporting` plate secured te the draft bar 3 and riding onthe forward terminal of the draft member l to support the bar 8 thereon.

ln use, it will be apparent, that when the animals at the two ends ofthe draft bar 8 are pulling with equal strain so that the draft bar isin a position perpendicular to the draft member l, as shown in thedrawings, the pull on the draft member is edualhT divided between theanim als at the two ends of the bar. The controller bar il() alsooperates to equalize the draft between the animals at the two ends ofthe draft bar, as because of the connectie-n between the lever 4e andthe bracket 1S through said controller bar 20, should the animalshitched in the opening1 ,fret ahead of the animals hitched in theopening' l0, some of the draft would be temporarily transferred from theaniials on the rear end of the draft bar to the animals at the otherend, until said animals have an opportunity to regain their positionWith the draft bar perpendicular to the draft member l. On the otherhand, should the animals hitched in the opening` l0 get ahead of theanimals hitched at the other end of the draft bar, the controller bar Q0would automatically throW more of the Weight on the animals in the leaduntil the rearmost animals would have an opportunity to regain theirposition.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

A draft appliance comprising' a draft member, a plate secured to saiddraft member in spaced relation thereto, a pair of bellcrank leverspivetallv secured to the draft member, one of said bell-crank leversbeing,`

of greater length than the other, a link pivotally secured to the endsof said bell-crank levers and adapted to join them together, a pair ofrods pivotally connected to the free end of the bell-crank levers, oneof said rods being of greater length than the other and adapted to besecured to the bell-crank lever of shorter length, a draft rod pivotallTconnected to said rods adjacent one end thereof, a curved link pivotallysecured to the bell-crank lever of greater length intermediate itslength and pivoted to the center of the draft rod.

In testimonT whereof I affix my signature in presence of tivo witnesses.

JOHN HO'WARD SMITH. llitnesses JOHN L. VVOLFE, M. T. GILBERT.

Copies of this patent may 'De obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Gemmissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

